The Devil's Playthings
by Who's Clues
Summary: A woman with a dark secret collaborates with The Doctor to investigate a mysterious death. Be warned, it's more than a little grim.


Talitha lured the man up to the roof with her charm; it had been easy this time though since he was more than a little drunk.

"Come over here, the view is just wonderful," she said. He ambled over, not suspecting a thing. The low railing made for perfect leverage as she wrapped his arm around his shoulders as though to be affectionate and instead pushed him over the edge. She turned her back and didn't even watch him fall as she tied the belt on her raincoat and left silently. She let her hair out of its braid when she was safely in her car and drove to her hotel on the other side of the city.

Talitha Lightner woke up the next morning feeling refreshed; she took a shower and got dressed for her morning interview. Her newest book reached the top of the bestseller's list and she was making a tour of some morning talk shows, starting in New York. She took a town car over to a studio and sat through the bright lights and cheery praise pleasantly enough. She glowed from all the attention.

"So Talitha, another bestseller. Where do you come up with all these juicy plotlines?"

"Well Beth," Talitha addressed the perky host. "Most of my ideas come from the real world. I usually find some interesting crime in the newspapers and use that as a base point for a story. The characters and motives are all my own creation but I use news stories as inspiration."

"Fascinating. And this is your fourth novel?"

"The fourth to be published, yes but I have many more in various stages of progress cluttering my laptop and my apartment."

"Fabulous, so when can we expect the next new one?"

"Maybe in a year and a half, I think the publishers want to allow time for people to read this one before releasing something else."

Beth laughs and admits to staying up all night to read _The Foxes' Den_. "Usually I don't even bother to read beyond the back of the books we discuss on the show, but I couldn't stop myself. Well you certainly can weave a tale Miss Lightner, please come back soon."

"Thanks for having me Beth."

"Stay tuned because after the break we have ten top tips to feel your best in the mornings." Beth got up when the cameras stopped rolling and gave Talitha a hug.

"I really do mean it, yours are the only books I've read since college. It was lovely meeting you," she said and the make-up and hair artists swooped in to refresh Beth's look while a soundman took the mike off Talitha's jacket. She nodded her appreciation and left set eager to eat something before she had to move on to the next interview.

After lunch and a radio interview that was almost exactly like the one she'd sat through before, Talitha went back to her hotel before going out to dinner with her publisher and agent, then returning to go to bed before catching a flight to Miami to do the same thing over again and catch a flight to London. Talitha checked the news when she got to her hotel room and found a story buried deep in The New York Times about a man who had mysteriously fallen or jumped from the roof of a downtown warehouse. After voraciously reading the article and basking in the glow that only comes from another killing that will never be solved, she went out for lunch with a journalist and went on with the tour.

* * *

><p>As promised, Talitha Lightner published another bestselling novel about a year and a half after the release of <em>The Foxes' Den<em> and found herself again on a press tour. She started in California this time, working her way down from her secluded house in Oregon to Los Angeles and heading west to Tokyo and Australia. She interviewed with talk shows and radio stations and a few online journalists in each city and once in a while a mysterious death would follow in her wake. A young woman was found in Vienna, poisoned in her home. Weeks later, Talitha arrived in London and went directly to her hotel room to rest. In the morning she had some time off so she went wandering around the city. Without realizing it, she passed the man who would inevitably bring her crimes to light, though she did notice his tweed jacket.


End file.
